18.01.2016

New owners for HWS

We have now managed to confirm that a three man team of access industry veterans including Dick Schalekamp has acquired Dutch rental company HWS.
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Dick Schalekamp

The deal agreed in principle a few weeks ago was signed and completed on Friday. The three new owners are Dick Schalekamp,51, a previous owner of Riwal, Allard May,47, the owner of Instant Holland Amsterdam – which he sold to Riwal in 2009, joining the company at the same time - and last but not least Coert Nodelijk, 48, a previous managing director of Riwal Hoogwerkers Nederland and a chief operational officer at Riwal Holding.

May will be commercial director and Nodelijk operations director, while we understand that Schalekamp will initially be an investor. His three year non-compete clause with Riwal expired in January following his departure from the company in 2012.

HWS owners Toby van de Kooij and Paul van Boven who took over the business from founder Henk Koolos around 15 years ago, will leave the company next month, at which time Schalekamp is expected to get more involved in the business.

HWS was established in 1978 in Leiden and now runs a fleet of around 900 aerial lifts, from its purpose built headquarters in Noordwijk and a depot in Nunspeet, near Zwolle.

Paul van Boven said: “After they left the Dutch multinational we kept in close personal contact with each of them. When they approached us with the idea to takeover our company it felt right instantly. Under the new owners HWS will remain HWS, personally and directly involved with employees and customers”.

van de Kooij added: “In the coming months Paul and I will be committed to HWS to hand over the management to Coert and Allard. Together they have over 40 years experience in the access equipment business. So they have little to learn in that respect. We will do our utmost to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and employees”.

Nodelijk said: “It feels great to be back in access rental. With a sound and renowned company like HWS we immediately have a strong position in a market we know so well and have kept in touch with so closely. We are grateful to Toby and Paul to select us to takeover and continue HWS. The mutual trust is enormous and that is what we would like to convey to our employees and customers as soon and as good as possible.”

Vertikal Comment

This deal has been rumoured for some time - or rather the idea that Dick Schalekamp would come back into the access/telehandler rental business - has been talked about for some time, as his non-compete clause moved towards its expiry date.

While van de Kooij and van Boven both seemed to be as enthusiastic as ever about the business, van de Koij is 58 and has been thinking about an exit strategy. Having run the company as a family business, the two owners would almost certainly have been apprehensive about selling to a major ‘corporate’ owner, so this deal probably owes more to the buyer’s timing than anything else.

As with anything there could always be a risk to this deal though, in that some might expect one or more of the new owners to have a point to prove. Hopefully not in a negative way - as this can be corrosive and lead to poor decisions which often affect the business.

HWS is an excellent business and will fit the new owner’s management styles perfectly, and provide them with a first class platform for further expansion – either domestically or internationally. HWS staff will almost certainly be relieved that the new owners are hands-on people from the powered access industry rather than a faceless private equity owner.

It is possible that some smaller competitors might be concerned that it the new owners could spark off a ‘battle of the elephants’ in which others get trampled.

But let’s hope not - all in all this looks like a win win deal.